To mark International Women's Day (March 8), Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is publishing a report entitled Women's rights: Forbidden subject which sheds light on the difficulties that journalists - both men and women - can encounter when they cover women's rights.

Covering women's rights does not come without risks for reporters. RSF has established that from 2012 to 2017, the rights of at least 90 journalists in around 20 countries were seriously violated because they dared to cover or talk about women's rights or gender issues. Several months of research has yielded the following chilling breakdown of these cases: 11 of these journalists were murdered, 12 were imprisoned, at least 25 were physically attacked, and at least 40 others were or are still being threatened on social networks.

In India, Gauri Lankesh, the editor of the secular and feminist weekly Gauri Lankesh Patrike, paid with her life for articles that criticized the woman's place in the caste system. She was gunned down on September 5, 2017. In Iran, many feminist journalists have been subjected to judicial harassment and imprisonment in connection with their writing. They include Mansoureh Shojaee, who now lives in exile, and Narges Mohammadi, who is still detained. However, it is not just women journalists who are persecuted by the enemies of women's rights. In Somalia, Abdiaziz Abdinur Ibrahim was arrested and sentenced to a year in prison on a fake news charge after he interviewed a rape victim.

"Journalists should not have to risk their lives in order to cover women's rights in 2018 but unfortunately they do in many parts of the world," RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said. "In this report, we show how press freedom's predators obstruct investigative reporting and coverage of women's rights by journalists, both men and women. And we offer very clear recommendations for ensuring that both halves of humanity enjoy the right to equal treatment by the media everywhere, without which we cannot talk of journalistic freedom and pluralism."

Predators with many faces

Who are the people who prey on women and journalists? RSF's report initially identifies extremist religious groups such as the Taliban and Islamic State. In the United States, journalists who cover abortion rights receive death threats from pro-life groups. Criminal organizations often seek to silence reporters. In Mexico, covering the many murders of women in the northern state of Chihuahua is particularly risky. Authoritarian regimes - led by those in China, Turkey, and Egypt - are also opposed to letting women's issues become a subject of public debate. In France, Canada, and many other countries, hordes of enraged Internet users unleash cyber-harassment campaigns against journalists. When the victims are women, the attacks become even more virulent and usually acquire a sexual dimension.

In response to the persecution, some reporters have had no choice but to flee into exile, some have stopped reporting, and others have chosen to resist. In this report, RSF pays tribute to all of these journalists and offers recommendations to governments, international organizations, online platforms, and news organizations so that women's rights are no longer regarded as a taboo subject and journalists who want to cover this issue can do so freely.

More from Attacks

In view of the examination of Guatemala before the Human Rights Committee in March 2018, the Centre for Informative Reports on Guatemala (CERIGUA), with the support of IFEX and the International Network for Human Rights (RIDH), produced an alternative report on the aforementioned issues covering the time- period between 2012 and February 2018, the month in which this report was completed.

Covering women’s issues does not come without danger. A female editor was murdered for denouncing a sexist policy. A reporter was imprisoned for interviewing a rape victim. A woman reporter was physically attacked for defending access to tampons, while a female blogger was threatened online for criticizing a video game. For International Women’s Day, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) wants to turn the spotlight on violence against journalists covering these issues. This report does not address the status of women journalists, equal employment of women in journalism or sexist (or non-sexist) attitudes in the media. These issues have been widely covered and debated elsewhere. This report focuses specifically on threats and violence against both men and women reporters covering women’s rights.

Freedom Forum monitored FoE during the elections as it concerns citizens' freedom of expression through the ballot box. Therefore, any action creating an unfavourable atmosphere for the elections is also a violation of freedom of expression.

A recent HKJA survey indicates a slight rise in the Hong Kong Press Freedom Index after two consecutive years of decline. Journalists on the ground believe that the situation has worsened in 2016, compared to the year before. HKJA chairperson Sham Yee-lan explained that the slight increase in the Press Freedom Index was likely to be related to the emergence of online media, which has led to some diversity in the industry.

This report presents the findings of a three-month study focused on mapping, observing and analysing online harassment of journalists in Hungary. The study aimed to identify the types of harassment journalists are subject to, which journalists are typically harassed, who the harassers are, and how journalists cope with harassment.

Combining both violent and nonviolent methods, the Communist Party's policies are designed to curb the rapid growth of religious communities and eliminate certain beliefs and practices, while also harnessing aspects of religion that could serve the regime's political and economic interests.

Many journalists increasingly practice self-censorship, fearing retribution from security forces, military intelligence, and militant groups. Media outlets in 2016 remained under pressure to avoid reporting on or criticising human rights violations in counterterrorism operations. The Taliban and other armed groups threatened media outlets and targeted journalists and activists for their work.

Chinese authorities' enforced disappearance of critics from Hong Kong and other countries in 2016 garnered headlines globally. Beijing's decision to interfere in a politically charged court case in Hong Kong in November undermined judicial independence and the territory's autonomy. In the ethnic minority regions of Xinjiang and Tibet, Beijing continued its highly repressive rule, curtailing political activity and many peaceful expressions of ethnic and religious identity.

Bangladesh witnessed a spate of violent attacks against secular bloggers, academics, gay rights activists, foreigners, and members of religious minorities in 2016. Several laws were proposed during the year to increase restrictions on freedom of expression.

Freedom Forum observed a relatively peaceful atmosphere for the media this year (2016) with a significant decline in the number of press freedom violations. FF recorded only 25 incidents of press freedom violations during 2016 versus 83 in 2015.

Pakistan is among the countries that do not properly investigate and prosecute crimes against media professionals. Because of the near absolute level of impunity, most of the people who attack, injure or even murder media journalists in Pakistan remain free.

2016 is a highly significant year for Cambodian democracy. Looking back, 2016 marks 25 years since the conclusion of the Paris Peace Agreements (the “Paris Agreements”), which brought an end to 20 years of conflict in the Kingdom of Cambodia (“Cambodia”) and laid the framework for a political settlement based on human rights and liberal democracy; looking forward, 2016 marks the unofficial start of the lead‐up to the local and national elections in 2017 and 2018, respectively, as political actors across the spectrum begin to position themselves.

In the 27 cases of journalists murdered for their work in India since CPJ began keeping records in 1992, there have been no convictions. More than half of those killed reported regularly on corruption. The cases of Jagendra Singh, Umesh Rajput, and Akshay Singh, who died between 2011 and 2015, show how small-town journalists face greater risk in their reporting than those from larger outlets, and how India's culture of impunity is leaving the country's press vulnerable to threats and attacks

Latin America is, by far, the most dangerous region of the world for environmental human rights defenders (EHRDs). The lack of effective guarantees of human rights protection in Latin American States has created this dire situation.

Violence against journalists in Europe increased in the second quarter of 2016, reports submitted to Index on Censorship’s Mapping Media Freedom platform show, as a government crackdown in Turkey intensified and protests turned violent in countries from France to Finland.

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